


An Unlikely Friendship

by Merfilly



Category: Highlander: The Series
Genre: Background Relationships, Charity Auctions, Gen, Slice of Life
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-27
Updated: 2017-10-27
Packaged: 2019-01-25 04:15:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,165
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12522752
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Merfilly/pseuds/Merfilly
Summary: A tale of Richie and Darius in those early months in Paris.





	An Unlikely Friendship

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Brightknightie](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Brightknightie/gifts).



Darius reached and took the woman's heavy coat from her, easily letting it shed the rains without getting himself wet. "Nasty weather," he commented, keeping his tone conversational but low. He nodded at the uneasy youth beside her who was closing the umbrella they had shared with only moderate success.

"Yes, it is," the woman said softly. "We are sorry to drop in so suddenly."

"Any friend of Duncan's is welcome here, always," Darius answered that with a smile. "Richie, is it not? I had heard tell of you, when another mutual friend passed through."

"Anyone I might have met?" Richie asked, even as he tried to relax, tried not to think of Duncan maybe not making it here.

"Duncan's cousin, perhaps?" Tessa asked, smiling warmly before taking Darius's hands in greeting to kiss his cheeks lightly, much as he did. She was worried for Duncan as well, but worry would not make their lives any better. Darius was one of the few other Immortals Duncan had made certain she knew and that she had chosen to trust.

"Yes, indeed." He guided them further into the building, keeping silent until they were settled in his office with refreshments for all. "I am terribly sorry that events have spiraled into your life like this, Tessa." 

"It is not as if I were blind to the possibilities, Darius. Duncan has been as careful as he can be, but ever since Connor visited last, I could tell it is growing difficult for him to remain apart from events."

Darius drew in a deep breath. "I find myself hoping the elder MacLeod is incorrect."

"About what?" Richie asked, trying to follow the undercurrents in this conversation.

Darius studied Tessa's face before giving Richie a shake of his head. "Perhaps later, you and I will talk some. For now, let us eat and put aside the excitement of travel and its causes," he suggested.

Tessa's silent look of gratitude was seen by the young American, and he chose not to push the point.

* * *

"Those two, so crazy about each other," Richie said, more to avoid any more talk about complimenting a girl's father's horse than to try and make conversation with the priest.

"It is good, to find ones that you can hold onto, lean on, when the world is harsh and intent on bringing pain to you," Darius observed.

"Well, that's a hell of a downer," Richie said without thinking. He then quickly covered his mouth. "Sorry, um, sorry? I mean, it's an expression."

To his immense relief, Darius laughed. "So it is, my young friend. Now, come. I will let you ask questions about the Game, and so long as it does not infringe privacy on any I know, I will attempt to answer. Mind you, my views and Duncan's do not run in tandem always, but I can give you my observations and let you draw your own conclusions against what he has shared."

"Which isn't much," Richie said, with a heavy sigh. "I mean, there's been information, but I still don't really get it, and the … what's it… the context? I think that's it. It's not all there for me. I mean, I know I probably shouldn't know anything at all, but ever since I saw him and that creep, I try to keep my ears open about it."

"Once your life twines with an Immortal's, it is good to learn what you may." Darius gave a smile, but it was tired, and there was some pain, for the mortals he had guided and helped and seen fall to the violence of others. Duncan and Connor both had a sense of Richie's future, one that made teaching him of the Game imperative. Darius had found, in the days that he had known the young man, that the MacLeods were probably correct.

* * *

Richie sighed at the turned-down lights of the barge and really wished he hadn't just had a fight with his girlfriend, so he could crash there. Duncan and Tessa being more of a couple than usual wasn't exactly in his list of best ideas to get past the argument, after all.

There was one place he thought he could slip away to and be welcome, though. Without even setting foot on the barge, he turned his attention to the streets of Paris and headed back to his first refuge here.

It didn't take long at this hour to get there, and he barely made it to the gates before Darius was in the doorway, beckoning him to come inside. Richie gave him a quick smile, but yawned on the heels of it. 

"Let's get you to rest, and we will speak tomorrow," Darius told him.

"Not really much to talk about; wanted to let them have a night to themselves," Richie mumbled but he was glad for the cot in a back room that Darius showed him to. He never would have thought he'd find peace in a church, and count the holy man as his friend, but as his eyes closed and Darius laid another blanket over him, he knew it for truth.

The morning found Darius at work with his flock, and Richie almost moved on out to avoid being a nuisance, but Darius caught his eye across the room. There was nothing imperative in it, but Richie relaxed, nodded, and went to lend a hand in the small garden. It wasn't his usual thing, but it was a way to help, and killed time until Darius was free again.

"Still not much to talk about?" Darius asked, some time later, taking up a spot beside Richie, searching out the weeds that might choke the young plants just coming up.

"You said once that it was good to find someone to hold onto, to lean into, once," Richie said, finally coming to the reason he'd sought Darius out for shelter in his own head. "How do you know when you have the right one? Like Duncan and Tessa?"

Darius shook his head. "You don't just magically know, my young friend. You may know thousands of people in your life, and any of them might be the right ones to be your stalwart companions of all time. Some of them may prove true. Some may vanish like smoke. Others, they will turn from your path, and strike out in anger, or withdraw and leave you to loneliness.

"There is no way to just know. All you may do is walk the road, and see how long the course is paired."

Richie considered that, then sat back from the gardening to look at Darius. "Experience?"

"Yes."

That made Richie sigh. "How do you not shut off then?"

Darius took a moment, then answered. "I prefer to embrace the possibilities that are good, than dwell in the realities of the bad, you might say."

Richie smiled, and got one in return, before he settled back to the weeding, and let the words settle in his heart.

**Author's Note:**

> "Band of Brothers" strongly implies that Tessa either knew or knew of Darius quite well. I have chosen to go with them having already met.
> 
> That episode also references that The Gathering has begun. I did not watch the pilot to be certain, but my hazy memory says Connor had warned of that fact.
> 
> Not related to the plot here, but of interest to me in my rewatch, "Band of Brothers" also, obliquely, implies the existence of "Light Quickenings" (Darius's change of heart at the gates of Paris) and may have, through cinematography, laid the first evidence of a "Dark Quickening" for Duncan as Grayson's eyes are lit in such a way that they noticeably darken just before Duncan ends the fight.


End file.
